Online mega sale to lift local retail

SOME of Australia's biggest retailers, including Myer, Target, Westfield and Dick Smith, have signed on for Australia's version of America's online shopping phenomenon, Cyber Monday.

The inaugural national online sales event, called Click Frenzy, will take place next Tuesday from 7pm when up to 150 retailers slash their online prices - by between 15 and 90 per cent - for 24 hours.

Event organiser, Grant Arnott, expects the event to attract up to a million shoppers and set a new online sales record for Australia. ''We're expecting a record volume of transactions on the day. It's hard to say exactly how much but we expect it will be tens of millions of dollars,'' he said.

''The whole aim is to stimulate activity in the online retail space for the benefit of all Australian retailers whether they are online or multichannel,'' he said. ''We want to establish this as an annual event before Cyber Monday really takes hold here and give Australian retailers a much needed boost ahead of Christmas.''

Mr Arnott said the event had been scheduled to begin at 7pm to capitalise on the ''couch commerce'' phenomenon - the increasing trend for consumers to shop via iPads, laptops or mobiles while watching TV.

In America, Cyber Monday, which was launched in 2006 and offers online sales from more than 700 retailers, now attracts 10 million shoppers.

Held on the Monday after Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day in the US - Cyber Monday is now by far the biggest day for online sales in America, with $US1.25 billion ($1.20 billion) spent during the 24-hour sale last year.

Sarah Hayden, digital manager for Jeanswest, which is taking part in the event, says it will not only drive online sales on the day but give Australian retailers an opportunity to show off their online stores.

''The international retailers tend to get a lot of publicity, but there are a lot of Australian retailers doing great things online and this is a good opportunity to let people see that,'' she said.

Target's general manager of marketing, Lee Applbaum, said he hoped it would also ''encourage more customers to give online shopping a try''.

Shoppers will have to visit clickfrenzy.com.au to access the retailers' online deals.

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